Numerous types of handheld electronic devices are known. Examples of such handheld electronic devices include, for instance, personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones, digital cameras, and the like. Although some handheld electronic devices are stand-alone devices, many feature wireless communication capability for communication with other devices.
Handheld electronic devices are generally intended to be portable, and thus are of a relatively compact configuration in which input structures such as keys may perform multiple functions under certain circumstances or may otherwise have multiple aspects or features assigned thereto. With advances in technology, handheld electronic devices are built to have progressively smaller form factors yet have progressively greater numbers of applications and features resident thereon. As a practical matter, the keys of a keypad can only be reduced to a certain small size before the keys become relatively unusable. Furthermore, due to the limited number of keys and the increasing number of features available on the device, access to these features may be buried under multiple layers of menus making use of the features cumbersome.
Many handheld electronic devices use mechanical keys that allow a user to feel the actuation of a key. Users feel comfortable with the feel of these keys and device manufacturers have spent large amounts of money to design and implement production lines to produce these keys. Many users would not want to switch to a key displayed as part of a touch screen and manufacturers would not be willing to make large scale changes to production lines to accommodate widely divergent mechanical keys.